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Monday, July 9, 2012

Calgary's airport tunnel half finished

Calgary’s Airport Trail Tunnel continues to take shape. The tunnel’s concrete infrastructure is now over half finished.

The walls and roof of the 620-metre long tunnel are being poured in sections—50 in total. As of July 5, 26 of the sections have been poured.

“This is a significant milestone in the completion of the tunnel,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi. “This tunnel will contribute significantly towards improving Calgary’s transportation network, particularly in the movement of goods and people to and from the airport.”

The tunnel structure is being constructed to accommodate six lanes of traffic, with the provision for a future transitway, and will extend Airport Trail from Barlow Trial to 36 Street N.E.

Each tunnel section requires 850 cubic metres of concrete which takes 80 trucks to deliver in a 12-hour period. More than 22,000 cubic metres of concrete has been poured since the first tunnel section was completed in late February.

“There is still a lot of work to do before The City turns over the tunnel portion under the new runway to the Calgary Airport Authority,” said Ward 3 Alderman, Jim Stevenson. “Project management and work crews have done an outstanding job so far in meeting the tight construction schedule and maintaining budget.”

The tunnel walls and roof under the new runway are part of the sections that have been poured. The City will hand over that portion to the Airport Authority so work can begin on the runway construction. All sections of the concrete walls and roof will be done by this fall.

Other work needed to complete the tunnel include backfilling the concrete sides of the tunnel walls, installation of lighting, as well as road construction inside the tunnel.

Most of the work on the roadways will take place in 2013. The entire project is expected to be completed by May 2014.

City Council approved a budget of $294.8 million for this project. Please visit calgary.ca/airporttunnel for more information.